


The Perfect Beach Day

by the_emerald_rose



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 07:59:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11963115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_emerald_rose/pseuds/the_emerald_rose
Summary: Finding the Keystone? 3000 gil for the ticket to the Gold Saucer. Enjoying a day in Costa del Sol? Priceless.





	The Perfect Beach Day

"Why are we here again?" Tifa had asked, once they left the inn of Costa del Sol.

Cloud stroked his chin, saying, "I think we were looking for the Keystone or... something. That sounds right."

Tifa nodded, recollection flashing across her face. "Right. And we got in at sunset, so we spent the night."

"And now we've sent everyone in different directions." Silly Tifa. It's usually Cloud who's forgetting what they're doing, unless it immediately involves Sephiroth. He continued, just to prove he remembered, "We sent Cid off to check the bar, and Barret off to intimidate the local youth. We sent Vincent to the beach, thinking maybe Hojo's still there, and judging by the lack of gunshots, he's not. We put Aeris and Yuffie together to check out the local stores so that Yuffie doesn't steal everything, and Red is on guard-the-buggie-and-bronco duty."

"And Cait?"

"Doing research at the inn. I figure we'll spend the day looking, then sleep, then move on."

"And where does that leave us?"

Cloud shrugged. He hadn't thought that far ahead. He said, "Effectively everything else in the town is covered. We might want to cross check with the other teams, though."

She nodded. "Let's move... east to west, so we start with the bar, then make our way over to the beach."

"So we'll check... Cid, Aeris and Yuffie, Cait, then Vincent, and Barret will be in the middle somewhere?" She nodded in reply. "Alright. Let's roll, then."

The bar was just as loud and noisy as before, even though it was morning. Cloud figured that when you live in, near, or are vacationing to Costa del Sol, your life is pretty easy and you might not need to worry about monsters or Sephiroth killing everyone or... whatever it is he's up to, so you can spend the whole day drinking. Cid had gotten himself a glass of rum, neat, and was sipping it while chatting up the bartender. Cloud could feel Tifa judging the place by the decor, and the way that they served their drinks. She muttered, "Too many frills. They should just let the liquor speak for itself."

The two of them plunked down on either side of Cid, once the bartender was busy with someone else. He nodded to the two of them, then said, "You two should have a drink. The lot of you are always so stressed, something might relax you."

Cloud shook his head. "I'm not going to relax until the madman's dead, and you know it."

Cid shrugged. "Tifa, you?"

She scowled, then muttered, "I don't recognize any of those labels and I don't trust them." Cid raised his eyebrows, and Tifa continued, "I used to run a bar. I don't drink anything I don't recognize. And this place..." She glared at a man who probably had a 10 o'clock shadow and thick bags under his eyes who was starting to eye her up. "... I don't want to drink here."

Cid nodded in understanding. "I feel you." Cloud could practically hear the drunkerd say "I want to feel you" with the way he was staring at Tifa's chest. Cid took another sip of his drink and said, "I'm still working on it, but I haven't gotten anything yet. I'd say maybe check with the rest of the team."

Cloud escorted Tifa out, before she could grab a hold of the drunk and give him something more to complain about other than the hangover he's bound to have. Outside, they saw Barret waving his fists at a pair of teenagers, who skateboarded away while laughing. Tifa adjusted her skirt, probably still feeling the lingering gaze of the patrons in the bar, as Cloud asked, "How are the youths, Barret?"

He glared at the two of them, saying, "I don't know what the hell y'all were thinking when you said, "Let's send Barret to talk to the teenagers!" Why not send Yuffie? She speaks their damn language."

Tifa sighed. "We didn't say "talk to" the teenagers. We said "intimidate" them."

His eyes widened in realization. "Ohhhhh. That makes more sense."

"Were you able to intimidate anything out of them?" Cloud asked.

"Other than potshots at me being old enough to call it dope, no."

Tifa guffawed, then repeated, "Dope?"

"Yeah! That's what they called it when I was a kid!"

Tifa couldn't help herself, and continued to laugh, despite Barret's attempts at saving himself. The only thing that stopped her was when Cloud asked, "What's dope?"

Tifa replied, "Weed, Cloud. Weed."

"Oh." That didn't help any, but he felt like he should know OF it. Granted, with his superior SOLDIER lifestyle, doing any sort of drug seemed to go against everything he trained for.

Tifa clapped Barret on the shoulder and said, "Alright, big guy. We're gonna go check on the girls, then Cait, then Vincent. We'll get back to you." Barret nodded, now more determined than ever to intimidate some information out of some local youths.

There were a number of stores along the boardwalk of Costa del Sol, and for a moment, Cloud had regretted letting the two girls loose. He gave them maybe five thousand to spend, after Aeris practically begged, but he had a feeling that Yuffie had taken a little more than that, and he was bound to regret it. Regardless, they found them easily in a kitschy souvenir shop. Yuffie was oggling the "Made Local in Costa del Sol!" Materia jewelry display case, while Aeris was looking at the decorative snowglobes. Before Tifa could even ask, Aeris asked, "How much do you think it would cost to have this shipped back to Sector 5?" She held up an overly large snowglobe, featuring a little miniature of the town inside, and the words COSTA DEL SOL jutting out the base. She wound up the bottom, and a tinkly, music box rendition of some theme from a really popular commercial advertising the town drifted out.

Cloud eyed the price tag, then said, "A little... too much, probably. And you'd need a return address, anyway, and that would be hard, since we really don't have a permanent house."

She considered for a moment, then said, "We should just buy that house, then. That way that'll be our return address."

Cloud seriously considered it, but shook his head, saying, "Buying a house isn't high on my list of priorities right now, Aeris. Sorry."

She seemed to deflate, then pointed out a smaller snowglobe. This one had instead just a little palm tree, with CdL written along the base. She asked, "This one?"

"Much more reasonable." He smiled, and she practically jumped with glee. For someone so serious, she certainly did know how to have fun. Unlike SOMEONE he knew who was serious all the time.

Tifa looked over the snowglobe, saying, "Pretty cute." Aeris beamed, and Tifa asked, "How goes the information gathering?"

"Yuffie's scoping out all the Materia cases. You know. For research." Riiiiiiight. "But nothing yet." Aeris did that thing where she stroked her chin and kind of bobbed back and forth, then said, "I really feel like we're in the wrong place for this. I don't know."

"Do you... hear anything?" Cloud asked.

She shook her head. "No, it's more of a... just call it a gut feeling."

Cloud took a glance at Yuffie, who was practically drooling over the selection in the case, then said, "Let's check in with the rest of the team and see where we stand."

Back at the inn, Cait Sith had set his little robot self up in one of their rooms. It was the guys' room, if Cloud recalled. Cait waved as they approached, then chirped, "I haven't gotten anything yet. There's not a lot that's readily accessible about the Ancients in the first place, let alone anything about the Keystone that guards their temple."

Cloud sighed. He figured as much. Tifa asked, "Any ideas where else we can look?"

"This sort of thing would probably end up, eventually, into the hands of collectors or something like that. Given the 'stone' in its name, and its magical properties, I would say check into folks who have a fondness for like... rocks and minerals and such. Maybe blacksmiths? Who knows."

Tifa nodded. "Right. Well, let's go check in on Vincent. I figure he's fine on his own, but..."

Out on the beach, it wasn't hard at all to find Vincent. He was leaning casually up against the sandstone wall, surveying the ocean. Cloud asked, "Aren't you hot?"

Vincent shrugged. Even in all black, with the thick red cloak, and the metal grieves and arm, and the summer heat, Vincent looked about as he always does. He said, "I'm a bit chilly, actually. But I'm always cold, so."

Tifa asked, "Find anything out?"

He shook his head. "Apparently Hojo was here, and he stood out about as much as I do, except people didn't seem to get the feeling that he was a murderous psychopath who ruins people's lives."

"And people get that with you?"

"No, I just told them to go fly a kite."

"Oh."

Cloud looked out at the ocean, then said, "We've found out literally nothing. Aeris and Cait both think we're on the wrong track, but I don't know where else to look. Any ideas?"

Vincent considered, probably consulting with Galian and Gigas and... whoever the other two are. Or, at least, the third one. As he gathered, no one talked to the fourth one. He said, at length, "It's not here."

Cloud swore to himself, then looked up. It was about midday, and everything else was too far to drive to. Besides, he'd have to wrangle the whole team, and who knows how far Aeris and Yuffie got down the boardwalk. Or how drunk Cid was. Or how angry Barret had made the local teenage populace. He finally said, "I figure we'll spend the day enjoying ourselves, then we move out come morning."

Vincent nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Tifa asked, "So, now that you've got the whole day free, what do you want to do, Cloud? Vincent?"

Vincent shrugged. "This isn't really... my kind of place. If we're done here, I can just relax at the inn and wait till tomorrow."

"You don't want to go swimming?"

"... n-not... really..."

Tifa looked expectantly at Cloud, then asked, "What about you? Do youuuu want to go swimming?"

"I umm... don't have... trunks?" Cloud offered. Truthfully, all he wanted to do was just find Sephiroth and punch him. Settle the score. Make things make sense again.

"Cloud, you're at a beach," Vincent said, "I'll bet you all the money in my pocket that half the stores on the boardwalk sell beachwear. Including trunks."

Cloud scowled. Tifa nodded, saying, "I need to get something, too. Let's go together."

"Should we bring Vin--"

Vincent made a sour face, and Tifa did, too, saying, "No, no, Vincent doesn't want to swim. He shouldn't have to go with us to get something he doesn't want and doesn't need. Let's just. Go. Together." She grabbed his hand and dragged him up to the boardwalk.

Inside one of the, as predicted, many apparel shops along the boardwalk, the two of them began searching for swimsuits. Tifa pointed Cloud in the general direction of the men's suits, while she looked at the ladies' suits. Cloud considered the "high performance" options, but most of them seemed... less like clothing and more like underwear. He ended up picking out a rather stately looking pair of trunks, in a dark purple with black stripes. It screamed "CLOUD STRIFE", but he also felt weirdly drawn to the shorter trunks with the pineapples on them. Ah well. He was picking out the CLOUD trunks today.

He went and found Tifa, who was holding up two different looking suits and dithering between them. One of them was a one piece, white with what looked like straps across the front. The other was... two pieces? Cloud couldn't be sure, but there were a lot of straps, and it was this lovely shade of blue. She looked up and saw him, then asked, "Which one?"

He looked between the two of them. Neither of them looked... practical, to say the least. And Tifa was a woman who screamed practicality, and neither of those were... very... The more he looked, the more he realized if she moved wrong, parts of her would fall out. Parts that, if he mentioned they looked like they might fall out, would earn him either a slap or a punch to the gut, depending on her mood. He looked around at the other options presented in the store. Straps and strings and bright colors and a lot of places for pieces parts to pop loose. And some where it seemed like that was a totally intentional part of the design. And then he saw the high performance suits. Unlike the men's, these were very practical. He held one up, in a color that seemed to her taste (a muted dark blue) and asked, "Why not this one?"

Her expression was unreadable.

Before she could make any sort of comment or gesture, Aeris sauntered in, unaccompanied by Yuffie. She waved and said, "Vincent told me the good news, and I came to check out the suit collection. I've always wanted to go swimming in the ocean, so..."

Cloud asked, "Where's Yuffie?"

"She's bringing Vincent. She said he HAS to try to swim."

"What about Barret and Cid?"

"The two have been sent to a different store under pain of bonkage."

Tifa said, "Hey. Aeris. Can you. Help? Please?"

Aeris looked over, and looked at the three suits in question: the two that Tifa had picked out, with their seeming ability for slippage, and the one Cloud had picked, which seemed to go to the mid thigh and was one piece. Aeris considered, then covered her mouth, and said, "Oh. Yeah. Definitely. I'll help." She turned to Cloud and said, "Cloud, why don't you go check out with yours? I'll help Tifa find something."

Cloud shrugged and hung the perfectly reasonable suit back up just as Yuffie shoved Vincent in, saying, "Well, I really don't care. We'll get you something." Vincent glanced to Cloud, a pleading look on his face, as Yuffie continued, "We can even get you one that's just as dark and emo as you are!"

"I don't even know what emo is..." Vincent muttered.

Once Cloud had checked out, he made his way back in to town. He found that Cid had abandoned his very dedicated, high labor post of watching the bar and was now on to the equally labor intensive job of minding the beach. Joining him was Barret, apparently having gotten his fill of terrorizing teenagers. And at some point, the two of them had gone shopping, or otherwise gotten themselves access to swim suits. They both elected for trunks, with Barret's being a camo pattern and Cid's a dark blue, adorned with stylized stars. Red was curled up near them, minding the folks on the beach.

Cloud headed down to the inn to get changed, trying to ignore Cait Sith grumbling about not being able to enjoy the beach, what with the whole being a robot thing. Once he was in his suit, he headed back to the beach to join the rest of the team. By this point, Tifa and Aeris had arrived, clad in their new suits. Tifa was in something different than what either of them had suggested. It was still strappy up top, but not so strappy that it looked like there might be... accidents. Aeris, meanwhile, was hemming and hawing about removing the pale pink cover up dress she had on.

Most of the regulars had cleared out, what with AVALANCHE descending upon the beach in force, and any other unrelated party scattered when Yuffie and Vincent burst on to the scene. Yuffie was in a bright halter top and shorts, while Vincent had been clad in black shorts and a tank top. Yuffie growled, "You are going in the water, mister, whether you like it or not."

Vincent whined, "I'm going to melt, though."

"No you aren't! You'll be fine!"

"But it's cold."

"Then it won't melt you!"

"No, I'll freeze to death."

"You're already dead!!"

Tifa sighed and said, "Yuffie, stop tormenting Vincent." Yuffie frowned, and Tifa gave her that patented Mom Friend Look, and that was that. Vincent was then allowed to skulk under the umbrella the boys had set out.

For the rest of the day, the team did their own... thing. Barret and Vincent laughed it up on the sands, watching the younguns do their thing. Cid did, too, mostly with a beer in hand. Aeris had finally elected to take off her dress, revealing a plain white bikini. At some point she told the team this was the first time she'd been in the water, and Yuffie practically launched her in. Tifa preferred to read, while Cloud and Red went in, only sparingly. And Cait was still relegated to hotel hell.

As the sun dipped, Cloud realized that this was... what they needed. A day to release the tension, and to enjoy themselves in their own way, even if it was just Cid drunkenly telling Vincent for the fifth time about that one time with the goblin who stole his spear, or it was Yuffie chasing Red around while cackling like a maniac. Or Aeris realizing that sunblock is a thing and getting burnt to a crisp. Even Cloud wasn't worrying, which was uncharacteristic. Every waking moment these days was "Where's Sephiroth? What's he doing? How do we stop him?", but now, he just wondered, "Is a mojito good? Should I try one? Would Tifa want one?"

For once, it felt like things were going to be fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Trying to write more. Sorry for lack of content.


End file.
